Book Review: Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund

Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pages: 272
Acquired: April 2011
Book of Your Shelf? No
Why I have it: Book Battle
Series: No

Aerrin Renning is orphaned and alone - adrift in her father's spaceship when the unexpected happens. She is rescued, tested, and sent to most elite school in the Alliance. Here she meets the famous Dane Madousin, the son of one of the most influential men in the Alliance. Both arrive with a big chip on their shoulders and with the feeling of needing to prove themselves. Aerrin is desperate to hide her past from her classmates, while Dane is struggling to prove he's not just like his father.

Thrown together in sparring class, the two find themselves in an unlikely friendship that pushes the rules to their limits. In and out of trouble, they find themselves relying on each other more and more every day. But will their relationship last when Aerrin discovers the truth about her past, and will Dane's father manage to use his influence to change the course of both their lives?

A fantastic story of discovering who you are and realizing that while your family and past can shape you, it's ultimately up to you to decide what to do with it. Aerrin and Dane are both fascinating and very deep characters. The layers of their personalities and lives are revealed slowly as the story develops and their friendship deepens. The story was engaging with just the right elements of surprise and foreshadowing.

4/5

Book Review: Nomansland by Lesley Hauge

Nomansland by Lesley Hauge

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pages: 243
Acquired: April 2011
Book of Your Shelf? No
Why I have it: Book Battle
Series: No

The year is sometime in the future. The place is Foundland, an island somewhere north. There has been some kind of apocolypse, but either no one knows, or no one is telling, what exactly happened. Foundland is populated by the select few. The females that have not mutated. They are taught to depend on no one but their community. They hunt, farm, and have special trackers to watch and chase off the men that may find their shores.

While I found the story interesting, there was a little too much mystery about the circumstances leading up to the community on Foundland. As the young women the story focuses on, Liang and Keller, find a house full of artifacts from the time before (the apocolypse). They are amazed to see photos and make-up and start visiting more and more often, which is strictly forbidden.

As the girls try to avoid being caught sneaking away, committee members are looking for the very thing the girls already found. An interesting look into a controlled community, but not enough detail or follow through to really catch my interest.

3/5

Book Review: Storm Thief by Chris Wooding

Storm Thief by Chris Wooding

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pages: 310
Acquired: April 2011
Book of Your Shelf? No
Why I have it: Book Battle
Series: No

Rail and Moa are thieves in the only city of Orokos (and by only I mean only - there is nothing else). While on a mission they discover a piece of ancient technology and they don't turn it in to their patron. This is all the start of a very grand adventure as Rail and Moa run from the secret police, monsters knows as Revenants, and the thugs sent by their thieve's patron.

Along the way the meet a very interesting "person". A golem named Vago that has quite an interesting past,of only he could remember what it was. Together the three flee across the city looking for a new and better life.

This was a fantastic story. The characters are fantastic and come to life on the pages. Their relationship is unique and wonderful to read about. They are all bound together by a fate that is greater than any one of them.

5/5

Book Review: Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation by Steve Stanton

The Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation by Steve Stanton

Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 240
Acquired: March 2011
Book of Your Shelf? No
Why I have it: NetGalley Review
Series: ???

I’m not sure where to start with this one – probably because I was very lost at the beginning. I thought that perhaps I had picked up a second in a series, but I could find no reference to a first book anywhere. The book in a nutshell is vampires meet cyperspace, but this isn’t clear at first.

The Eternals are somehow “chosen” to become immortal in a non-aging sense. People can link to cyberspace by hooking up with a cord coming out of their head which seems to be connected to microchips they have had implanted in their brain. Ok – so far I’m following, but then come the strange references to levels and ranks in the cyberworld with no real explanation of what they mean.

Now, if you take the Eternals and the cyberworld somewhat out of the equation, the realtionships between the people are fascinating. The story revolves around a father, mother, and son. The parents are both Eternals and are trying to find a way to “infect” their son as well. They travel to the ends of the known universe (literally) to try and find this virus. However, beyond this the relationship was rather odd. Perhaps as a result of being so virtual based, the family’s responses to each other seemed overly strained and impersonal.

2/5

Book Review: Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin

Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin


11. Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin

Genre: Science Fiction, Distopia
Pages: 324
Acquired: 12/30/2010
Book of Your Shelf? No
Why I have/read it: Group Read, TIOLI
Series: Native Tongue (1)

The majority (and important part) of this book takes place about 200 years from now. The world has changed dramatically. Aliens are our trading partners and women have been relegated to the role of perpetual child. All their rights have been removed and they are allowed to do nothing without permission from their male relatives. The Linguists, a group of families that devote their time to the aquisition of new alien languages, are the prime focus of the book, and we learn many fascinating things about the theories behind linguistics throughout.

The group read had so much to say that I find it hard to rate this book. While the characters were for the most part flat and unchanging, I feel that they were written that way for some purpose. There is not a single male character that pulls the sympathy of the reader even a little, and even the females tend to lack the spark to draw the reader to them too closely. There are two notable exeptions to this in Nazareth and Michaela. These two women jumped off the pages for me and held everyone else's place in the story together.

The women of the Linguist families are revolting in quite an odd way. They are creating their own language, a language only for women. Much of the story revolves around the older women of the family collecting the words of the new language together and trying to hide its existence from the men. The big question I came away with was whether or not a language really could change the way of life for the women, or if it was just some way of passing on hope from one generation to the next.

I have added the next book in the series to my wish list, but it may be a little while before I can sit down to read it.

3.5/5

Alien Revealed by Lilly Cain

Alien Revealed by Lilly Cain

Alinna is an alien (very human like) that has been sent to scout the earth and decide if they would be good allies for her people. She is instructed to stay out of sight and out of the way. Fate has other plans when her small craft crashed near an Earth space base. She is retrieved by Major David Brown who assumes she is a doctor he has been waiting to show up, but he soon realizes she may not be who he thinks she is.

Whoa Nelly! Talk about a short but very hot romance. The short little book had me blushing like you wouldn't believe. Alinna and David manage to somehow overcome their initial distrust and sparks go flying - perhaps fireworks would be more appropriate. All that aside, the story was cute and entertaining. It ended quite abruptly and seemed almost unfinished though.

2.5/5

Book Review: The Judge by Egan Yip

The Judge: The Coranite Chronicles (Volume 1) by Egan Yip (eBook)

Darek is a simple delivery boy...he earns just enough to make ends meet in his simple life. Then one day things change. The mythical judges have made an appearance and killed thousands. Darek is in the wrong place at the wrong time and is linked to this vigilante style group. Arrested, he find himself fighting for his freedom and his life across the galaxy.

This book is the ultimate sci-fi/fantasy book for young adults. You get teleportation, aliens, space monsters, sword fights, super-human abilities, just to name a few. The characters are engaging and the action is almost non-stop, but doesn't seem to be forced or overly rushed. The characters are constantly fighting battles not only with their enemies, but within themselves.

The ending revealed much about our characters past that pulling many of the lose ends together. My only complaint is that much of it seems to come out of the blue, with not previous hints by the author (unless I totally missed them). The book was hard to put down and had me rooting for the good guys all the way.

3.5/5